A "Wow" Night

Tonight is one of those nights where I find myself very deep in thought, and feel the need to share some insights and ideas on my blog. Tonight, I have been challenged with the amazing truth we can find in the Sovereignty, faithfulness, and steadfast love of God, and just how evident that is. You know those moments when you come across something and you can’t help but respond by saying wow, leaving you speechless thereafter. That is the power of God’s word! I was reading through Psalm 40 and came across a couple passages that really struck me as wow moments tonight, so I wanted to share.

Psalm 40:11-17 says,

                      ¹¹As for you, O Lord,

            you will not restrain your mercy from me;

            your steadfast love and your faithfulness will

ever preserve me!

                ¹²        For evils have encompassed me

beyond number;

                        my iniquities have overtaken me,

and I cannot see;

                        they are more than the hairs of my head;

my heart fails me.

                ¹³        Be pleased, O Lord, to deliver me!

O Lord, make haste to help me!

                ¹⁴        Let those be put to shame and disappointed altogether

who seek to snatch away my life;

                        let those be turned back and brought to dishonor

who delight in my hurt!

                ¹⁵        Let those be appalled because of their shame

who say to me, “Aha, Aha!”

                ¹⁶        But may all who seek you

rejoice and be glad in you;

                        may those who love your salvation

say continually, “Great is the Lord!”

                ¹⁷        As for me, I am poor and needy,

but the Lord takes thought for me.

                        You are my help and my deliverer;

do not delay, O my God! ^[1]

I was taken aback by the power and of these words from the psalmist. The idea that God’s love and faithfulness will preserve, even amongst all the storms that life throws at me. Even when I fail, and when I screw up to the point that I can’t see what is right and what is not, God’s love and faithfulness preserves me. The psalmist then goes on to ask for help. I don’t know about you, but I have a hard time asking for help sometimes. I like to fix all the problems and do it my way, someone else’s way my complicate everything! I can’t begin to imagine what God feels like when we are always doing our own thing, even though he has already planned our life. Why am I not seeking God for deliverance from my enemies, from my struggles, from my pain? Why am I so ignorant, that I can’t realize the help I need to survive?

My favorite part of this verse comes at the end, when the Psalmist says, “As for me, I am poor and needy, but the Lord takes thought for me. You are my help and my deliverer; do not delay, O my God.” wow….I honestly couldn’t say any more to that. Why, might you ask? Because I am that person. I am poor and needy. I will NOT survive unless I realize that God is my help and my deliverer. People around me might temporarily encourage or sustain, but I can rely on no one but Christ.

I hope my rambling has spoken to you in some way, and if not, I hope it has encouraged you to at least look at the scripture with a new light. One that isn’t just reading it to read, or studying it to study, but with an attitude of “I need help!” or, “God, I need to be delivered from this sin in my life!” Because when we can approach God with a willing heart, the return is phenomenal. God will respond, we just fail to let him most of the time.

                Blessed is the man who makes

the Lord his trust,

                        who does not turn to the proud,

to those who go astray after a lie!^[2]- Psalm 40:4

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^[1] The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001). Ps 40:11–17.

^[2] The Holy Bible : English Standard Version. (Wheaton: Standard Bible Society, 2001). Ps 40:4.

Total Abandonment & Total Surrender

It’s been a while since I have blogged, and I have decided that I would like to at least attempt to get this thing going again, haha. I would love it if anyone has any questions or things to cause me to think through, so feel free to message me or comment at any time.

            Tonight I was bored and needed a break from writing my last big paper of the year, so I decided to do some pleasure reading (I have so many books I want to read…its insane!). Anyway, I started reading the book “Radical” by David Platte. From the first chapter that I have read, I would definitely recommend this book. If you don’t trust my judgment by one chapter…..well then I guess you will just have to be patient as I read through the rest. Part way through the first chapter I came to a section called ‘Radical Abandonment.’ It was directly after a section talking about Luke 9:57-62, and the implications and power that come out of that passage. If you don’t know this passage, I would encourage you to take some time and read through it slowly, thinking critically about how it applies directly to you and your current circumstances.

            In this passage, Jesus is traveling out from a Samaritan village after just being rejected by the people there, and he meets three different men. The first man says he will follow Christ wherever he goes. Jesus replies, “foxes have holes and birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has nowhere to lay his head. In an interpretive sense, he was telling this man that homelessness is to be expected as part of following Christ. To a second man, Christ says to follow Him. The man asks to first be able to bury his father that has just died, but Christ says to let the dead bury their own dead. The third man says too, “I will follow you,” but this guy has a catch, he wants to first go and say goodbye to those at home. Jesus replies to him, “No one who puts his hand to the plow and looks back is fit for the kingdom of God.” What is going on here?! These people are presenting themselves before Christ as willing followers, and all he is doing is rejecting their small wishes before they go. In our culture today that seems unimaginable! It would appear that Jesus is convincing these men NOT to follow him…..

            Later on in Luke 14:25-33, we see Christ surrounded by a group of people and he says, “If anyone comes to me and does not hate his own father and mother and wife and children and bothers and sisters, yes, and even his own life, he cannot be my disciple.” Woah…now we are crossing a line…surely this isn’t what Christ really meant…surely there is some deeper meaning or metaphorical context to this passage. He wouldn’t really tell us to hate those that are closest to us would he? Oh but wait, He then says, “Whoever does not bear his own cross and come after me cannot be my disciple.” As Platte puts it, “This is taking it to another level. Pick up an instrument of torture and follow me. Imagine a leader coming on the scene today and inviting all who would come after him to pick up and electric chair and become his disciple. Any takers?”

             Platte makes a good point. We are so scared of this ultimate reality, that we deny it completely. We ignore the great price that Christ is asking us to pay in order to truly follow Him. Hate our families? Leave everything behind? Give up everything? Would the loving God I know really do that? To summarize Platte’s thoughts, this is when we come to that realization that we DO have to give up everything! We DO have to love him in a way that makes all of our other relationships look like hate. And who is to say that when we are totally devoted to him, that he won’t call us to sell everything and give it to the poor, after all, he did command that of the rich man in Mark 10. But we are in denial. We don’t want to believe it, so we shape Christ and his meanings into what we want it to look like. We make Christ into a God that doesn’t mind materialism. We make him into a God that is ok with only doing a half job on our devotions and slacking off, just because we tell ourselves that God still loves us even when we mess up. We have fallen in this pattern of changing who the Jesus in the Bible is, and often times we don’t even realize it! We are molding Jesus into our own image….yes, its true. We are doing this because we are most comfortable with ourselves, therefore the Jesus we know looks better and fits better in our lives when we make him more like us. Have we forgotten that we were created in GOD’S image?! Shouldn’t this pattern be reversed? However, its not. “The danger now is that when we gather in our church buildings to sing and lift up our hands in worship, we may not actually be worshiping the Jesus of the Bible. Instead we may be worshiping ourselves.”

            The thoughts brought out by Platte’s insights brought me to tears this night, because I too am guilty of this pattern. I too am guilty of making Jesus what I want Him to be. So I am encouraging you to analyze yourself and ask who you are serving? Who are you worshiping? Who is on center stage in your life right now? Our first reaction might be to say God…but when we take a step back, ask ourselves if we really could give up everything… who is central now? I pray that the spirit would work in any of you that read this, and that something awesome would come out of it! Our God is truly amazing, and there is none like him! I know I am going to place my energy into totally surrendering it all to Him, I ask you to join me in this Journey.

In Christ,

Matt Spangler